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Foreclosure Firm Throws Hobo Halloween Party

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  • Foreclosure Firm Throws Hobo Halloween Party

    Argh

    New York hasn't quite appalled me enough yet this morning so here's another one:

    "On Friday, the law firm of Steven J. Baum threw a Halloween party. The firm, which is located near Buffalo, is what is commonly referred to as a “foreclosure mill” firm, meaning it represents banks and mortgage servicers as they attempt to foreclose on homeowners and evict them from their homes. Steven J. Baum is, in fact, the largest such firm in New York; it represents virtually all the giant mortgage lenders, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo."

    "A third photograph shows a corner of Baum’s office decorated to look like a row of foreclosed homes. Another shows a sign that reads, “Baum Estates” — needless to say, it’s also full of foreclosed houses. Most of the other pictures show either mock homeless camps or mock foreclosure signs — or both. My source told me that not every Baum department used the party to make fun of the troubled homeowners they made their living suing. But some clearly did. The adjective she’d used when she sent them to me — “appalling” — struck me as exactly right.
    "

    And you wonder why people are mobbing in the streets over there. >.>

  • #2
    I feel confident enough these people will get theirs eventually.

    Comment


    • #3
      This reminds me of that clip in Michael Moores latest movie (Capitalism). He interviewed this guy from "condo vultures" who was bragging about buying a new car every year all at the expense of the people he screwed over with bad loans.

      But this... is just awful. It really shows what little they think of the people who lose their home because of them.

      Fuckers.

      Comment


      • #4
        ...

        Unless they're foreclosing on people who either do not owe money or are paying it on time, then it's only in the most superficial sense that anyone is losing their home "because of them." Meanwhile, people in many other lines of work also use humor that seems horrible to outsiders; the problem may simply be that they didn't keep it to themselves.
        "My in-laws are country people and at night you can hear their distinctive howl."

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        • #5
          My Fiance used to work for a mortgage company; he handled customer complaints, including that came from the BBB and Attorney General's office. There were times that a person had genuinely been shafted by the company and circumstance, and he would do all that he could to keep them in their home. But then you have the couple who won't sell their two speedboats in order to make their mortgage payment. Or the guy who refuses to touch his infant's $50,000 college fund. Or the woman who threatened to commit suicide unless Fiance renegotiated her payments. As in, "I have a gun to my head right now and if you don't do what I want then I'm going to pull the trigger." The vast majority of the homes he foreclosed on were people who had blatantly bought too much house for their budget. If you have a $100,000/year salary, maybe you should rethink the $3 million mansion.

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          • #6
            Just before the crash, there were banks and realtors pushing people into getting homes they could not, in any sense of reality, afford, even if they all had gotten raises of $1/hour, would they have been able to afford the mortgages they were sold.

            My real estate agent mentioned horror stories about some of the houses she ended up finding for people. Including the house I'm in right now, which was foreclosed on despite there being at least two adults with full-time jobs. I bought it through a short sale, for about the property's current value, which was $20k short of the remaining debt, after four years of payments.

            ^-.-^
            Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Andara Bledin View Post
              Just before the crash, there were banks and realtors pushing people into getting homes they could not, in any sense of reality, afford, even if they all had gotten raises of $1/hour, would they have been able to afford the mortgages they were sold.
              Maybe four or five years back, I was doing the mortgage search thing and ended up being offered mortgages that there was no way I could afford to repay. Single income? Let's allow him over four times his stated income! Yay!

              Oddly enough, one of the last places I went to would only allow me significantly below the amount I needed. It was when I said to them that even with the deposit I'd saved I wouldn't be able to afford the house I was after and they went, "You have a deposit?" with genuine surprise that negotiations began in earnest.

              It's sound business sense to only lend what people can afford to repay, and I'm with them now.

              Rapscallion
              Proud to be a W.A.N.K.E.R. - Womanless And No Kids - Exciting Rubbing!
              Reclaiming words is fun!

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              • #8
                It sounds like this was a company that would do everything in their power to foreclose rather than pursue alternative options.

                As for mocking the people....I can only hope that these people get theirs. For every story of the people refusing to sell a boat or whatever, there are several of people that have legitimately fell on hard times.

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                • #9
                  I knew a guy who worked in foreclosures, evidently that sort of party theme isn't uncommon. The way he explained it to me, its like morticians making jokes about the bodies. You need to lighten it up somehow, because you know you're doing something unpleasant.

                  It sounds like this was a company that would do everything in their power to foreclose rather than pursue alternative options.
                  Why do you say that? I don't see any evidence in thearticle, but I may have msised some.
                  "Nam castum esse decet pium poetam
                  ipsum, versiculos nihil necessest"

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